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Scanlan: After a tentative start, Sens fans were fully on board before Game 5 heatbreak

Author of the article:

Wayne Scanlan • Ottawa Citizen

Publishing date:

April 22, 2017 • 3 minute read

Jennifer Howell, (from left) Steve Barnett, and Carmel Bourgeois in the Red Zone before the Ottawa Senators took on the Boston Bruins in Game 5 at the Canadian Tire Centre on Friday, April 21 2017.Wayne Cuddington/ Postmedia

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The Ottawa Senators lost a battle on Friday night, dropping Game 5 to the Boston Bruins in overtime. Yet, the crusade lives on for another day.

Game 6 is in Boston on Sunday afternoon. The Senators carry a 3-2 series lead into the matinée.

Historically, the Senators are generally more efficient at this business. In the modern history of the franchise, Ottawa had all converted seven straight 3-1 series leads until Friday’s stumble.

Their fans would be just as happy not to experience the stress of a Game 7 back in Ottawa next Wednesday.

Game 5 was stressful enough. After having a goal called back, the Bruins won on a goal by Sean Kuraly in the second OT period.

With two more chances to get it right, the town is getting a bit of that feel again. There’s no champagne on ice, far too early for that kind of hex, but the beer was plenty cold on Elgin Street Friday night. (Sources say).

The Senators’ two-time Norris Trophy winner (and 2017 nominee) Erik Karlsson isn’t the only one who has elevated his standard of play in the playoffs.

The Senators faithful have also upped their game.

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David Pastrnak chips the puck past Senators netminder Craig Anderson to score the Bruins' first goal of the game on Friday night.

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Sean Kuraly of the Boston Bruins scores on Craig Anderson as he is defended by Chris Wideman of the Ottawa Senators during second period.

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Marc Methot and Craig Anderson of the Ottawa Senators against the Boston Bruins during second period.

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Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins does a wraparound that led to his team's first goal against goalie Craig Anderson.

Craig Anderson pauses after the Bruins won the game in the second overtime period.

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The Boston Bruins celebrate their double-overtime win.

From the fan department, tentative would be a word to describe Ottawa’s entry into the post-season. Toes were dipped in water.

The Game 1 crowd was underwhelming, and the atmosphere slow to rouse, like a hard-core partisan working on muscle memory of how to act in a playoff environment. Friday’s gate of 19,209 was the largest of the three home dates.

In Game 2, the OT thriller, beer sales doubled from Game 1, according to a club official. Same goes for face painters in the pre-game Red Zone. The throng was such that they had to bring in painter reinforcements. How long was the Game 5 lineup to get a Senators logo painted on a face? Let’s just say it was roughly a Sens Mile.

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Of course, for players all this frivolity is something to note from the corner of one’s eye, and then to acknowledge once a series is over.

On the morning of Game 5, asked about the bubbling playoff fever and a sense of anticipation in the room, starting goaltender Craig Anderson was his circumspect self.

“It’s more focus than excitement,” Anderson said. “If you lighten the mood a bit, that’s when you get hurt.”

In the stands, the mood was light on potential clinching night, fans erupting in a chant from the drop of the puck at 7:40. By the time Jean-Gabriel Pageau had given the local heroes a 2-0 lead early in the second period, Pageau chants rang out and the party was on. Until the Bruins fought back to tie the game. Nerves crept into the game. On and off ice.

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Senators goaltender Mike Condon, new to the Senators this season and a key contributor in Anderson’s absence, is just getting a feel for Ottawa hockey when spring is in the air.

Condon was a third-stringer for the Canadiens last spring. The season before that, he was invited up from the AHL to hang around. Condon doesn’t get recognized in the streets of Ottawa the way he did in Montreal by those rabid Habs followers, but he can sense a temperature rising in the nation’s capital. He hears it from his favourite people — the chefs and proprietors in his local berg.

“I live in Westboro and I’ve got a few eating spots I go into,” Condon says, pre-game. “I’ve made a few friends there in the restaurant business because I always eat out at night. I don’t think I’ve cooked one meal this year.”

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So much for the advantage of home cooking. This backup tender eats out home and way. Although he spent the better part of the past week eating beans and other New England fare in Boston around games 3 and 4, Condon is starting to getting a feel for what passes for playoff fever in the nation’s capital.

“You’re starting to see a few more flags on the cars, I’ve noticed that,” Condon said. “We’re in a good spot right now.

“If we get this one here and move on to the second round, the buzz will be even greater. The faith in this room is very high – and I think it’s growing on the fan side as well.”

The faith received a bit of a jolt in the middle of that second OT period, but the Sens live to fight another day. Their fans ride with them.

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